The New Experiment

Almost ten years ago I decided to try an experiment with my ability to write. I had free time in the mornings and started taking advantage of that time by playing around and writing down some of the thoughts and ideas that came to mind. Sometimes these thoughts and ideas were just crazy, fictitious ramblings about some nonsense that had been kicking around in my head—like the time I got drunk and found myself in jail—and sometimes they were more truthful in nature—like the story I wrote about drive in theaters and my desire to purchase one. Much of what I found myself writing blurred the lines between truth and fabrication although the lies never really altered what happened in real life. I suppose you could say that the truth was occasionally embellished.

I find myself a little sidetracked here and need to get back to the point which was the experiment.

Somewhere around the time I started these writings I had been reading John Barleycorn by Jack London. The book was autobiographical and dealt with London’s battle with alcoholism. In that book or in some other biographical information I read on London I found that he had a goal of writing one thousand words every day before ten o’clock in the morning. It was his routine. He did this either by hand or with a typewriter, he may have used both depending on what was available to him, I can’t recall for sure but it isn’t important.

I thought that if Jack London could write one thousand words every day using some archaic method of transcribing his thoughts I surely could do it using the modern technology at my disposal. And so began my attempt to recreate the method of success employed by a drunken wanderer.

Every weekday morning I would sit down and write my thousand words. I didn’t do it on the weekends because I didn’t have my mornings free to do so. It was important to be free from distraction and the weekends were huge distractions.

I’ve gotten sidetracked again. Back to the experiment.

On one of these mornings I read a headline announcing Lance Armstrong’s return to competitive cycling. Having an interest in cycling I decided to write about it. It was suggested to me that I send this writing out to newspapers to see if there was any interest in publishing it.

Me being the reclusive introvert that fakes extrovertism I balked at the idea. Me being the reclusive introvert that fakes extrovertism my balking was kept silent and suppressed. In my mind I knew I wasn’t going to send it anywhere aside from some forgotten file in my computer. Then a little voice inside me said something to the effect of “Are you chicken?”

The truth was that I was chicken. I have no idea what I was afraid of but whatever it was would surely kill me dead. A reply from an editor would open the doors to a conversation that I didn’t want to have for reasons I cannot explain.

The real problem I found myself faced with is that it was the same voice that said “Are you chicken?” when I heard on the radio one night a decade or so earlier that it was the following day was the Great American Smokeout. I thought to myself that I will quit smoking but I’m not going to do it when millions of other losers like me were trying it. I’ll do it when I am good and ready. Insert voice here.

So now I had to send this Armstrong piece out to newspapers just to shut that voice up and show it who was boss. If I can quit smoking on the day when millions of other losers like me try to quit I can certainly send an unsolicited manuscript out to a few newspapers. So I did. I sent it to several papers around the region. I don’t remember if any or all of them replied in some form or another save one.

Sorry, sidetracked again.

The editor of the Manistique Pioneer Tribune replied to me. He told me that he was not interested in a one-off article. All of my hard work rejected just like that. I had spent an entire hour writing my magnum opus and it was shot down just like that. I was crushed.

Okay, I wasn’t crushed. Not in the least. The editor went on to say he essentially liked my writing and asked if I would consider writing a weekly column. Sure, I was writing a thousand words a day but there was no pressure. If I didn’t do it I only had myself to answer to. The idea of writing a thousand words a week suddenly seemed like an insurmountable nightmare of an obstacle.

“Are you chicken?”

I thought about it and decided that I probably couldn’t do it but I would give it a try.

That was the experiment; to see if I could write a weekly newspaper column. If you are one of my readers from long ago you know that the experiment lasted a little more than six years before I decided that I couldn’t write a weekly newspaper column. I had burned out.

At any rate I think I might be willing to try writing again. No, I won’t be putting down a thousand words a day. Not yet anyway. But I do find my Thursday mornings to be open and I am going to try to write something then. Coming up with ideas and inspiration on what to write about is always a challenge so if you are a reader and want to send a topic my way to see if I am up to the challenge go ahead and shoot me a quick note to the email at the end of this piece.

Most likely I will be writing an unedited, stream of consciousness bit like this has been. That’s the way I used to do it until I had a fancy editor at a newspaper. That’s the way it is going to be done now.

If you are off put by typos and grammatical errors, well that’s your problem.

Remember, this is just an experiment.

Waye Braver can be contacted on Facebook or by e-mail at waye@braverinstitute.com
Visit the Braver Institute at www.braverinsitute.com